Browse Items (425 total)

A black and white photograph of a large workspace with many large printing presses. There are several fair skinned older men scattered around the room, their hands on the various machinery as they work and chat with each other.
Printers in the Composing Room chat as they stand near large presses. In the foreground, one printer rests his hand on a truck.

A black and white photograph of a large work room with several rows long tables, each with various items like papers scattered across them, on each side of the room. In the very back of the photo are lines of linotype machines. There are people scattered about the workspace.
The Composing Room was the workspace for most Deaf printers at The Washington Post.

A scanned image of the cover of a booklet. Text reads "Facts about the International Typographical Union for all who would like to know democratic trade unionism since 1852" and "1973"
Membership in the International Typographical Union admitted Deaf printers into a broader legacy of organized labor in the US. As outlined in the booklet, union participation ensured that Deaf printers received the same benefits and protections as…

A scanned image of a laminated flyer. The page is divided in four sections, each with a black and white photograph labeled with an American Sign Language handshape font. The first image is an exterior photo of The Washington Post, labeled "Washington Post," next a photograph of a linotype machine labeled "Display Linotype", next, linotype machines and workers, labeled "Post Linotypes" and employees seated in rows of small cubicles, labeled "TTS Keyboarding".
This flyer highlighted Deaf printers at work, giving descriptions of their workspaces in both ASL and English. The depiction of the American Sign alphabet and numbers encourages discourse between signing and non-signing employees at The Post.

Glossary - DarkRoom.mp4
DARKROOM: An enclosed space with minimal light exposure for image processing.

Glossary - Floorman.mp4
FLOORMAN: a printer who worked on laying out the text and images for newspaper pages.

Glossary - Hot Metal.mp4
HOT METAL: a form of typesetting machinery that utilized molten lead to cast type; often used to refer to Linotype machines, which cast whole lines of text known as slugs.

Glossary - Ludlow.mp4
LUDLOW: an early form used in newspaper printing that used hand-set characters to create type.

Glossary - MakeUp.mp4
MAKE-UP: the arrangement of the elements of a newspaper page done by a floorman.

Glossary - Pagination.mp4
PAGINATION: a computer system which printers used to lay out the classified pages digitally.
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